1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to surgical drapes, and more particularly to disposable surgical drapes used to cover surgical equipment to maintain sterility in a surgical theatre.
2. Related Art
The need to provide a sterile environment in a surgical theatre is directly associated with the known risk of infection that can be caused by bacteria, such as from a person or surgical equipment, in the surgical theatre. As such, it is known that in order to minimize the risk of infection during a surgical procedure, it is necessary to prevent the transfer of bacteria, such as via airborne lint or dust particles, fluids, or otherwise, within the surgical theatre.
Surgical drapes are commonly used during surgical procedures to prevent the transfer of bacteria, thereby maintaining sterility in the surgical theatre. The surgical drapes cover surgical equipment to present an external sterile surface about the equipment. By covering the underlying surgical equipment, not only is an external sterile surface quickly provided, but any bacteria on the underlying equipment prevented from being transferred throughout the surgical theatre, and the underlying equipment is also protected during the surgical procedure. Without surgical drapes, it becomes necessary to sterilize the surgical equipment thoroughly before and after each surgical procedure, which is labor intensive consuming a great deal of time, and thus, costly.
A wide variety of surgical drapes have been developed to improve sterility at the operative site. During some surgical procedures, multiple surgical drapes are employed to reduce the potential for infection. For example, during radiological surgical procedures using a radiation shield deployed over a patient's torso, it is known to deploy multiple surgical drapes about the patient and the radiological shield, including a drape deployed about the patient's head/neck region in order to prevent bacteria from being transferred from an anterior, non-sterile side of the radiation shield to a posterior, sterile side of the radiation shield to the location of the surgical procedure. This is typically the case when surgical support staff, such as a perfusionist, is positioned on the non-sterile, anterior side of the radiological shield while the surgical team performs surgery on the sterile, posterior side of the radiological shield.
Of the surgical drapes known, there are two types. One type is reusable, while the other is disposable. Of course, reusable drapes require re-sterilization after each use, and of course, the sterility must be maintained after re-sterilizing and prior to future use. This requires having sterilization equipment available; is labor intensive, and thus, costly. In addition, having to re-sterilize the drapes introduces an increased possibility that the reusable drape either not becoming completely re-sterilized, or that the re-sterilized drape becomes contaminated prior to future use, such as via improper repackaging.
The known disposable drapes, while doing away with the concern of re-sterilization and offering an ability to provide a sterile surface desired, commonly require separate, multiple drapes to cover all the surfaces requiring draping. In addition, the known disposable surgical drapes are challenging to deploy, both generally speaking and in proper fashion to maintain sterility, and non-conforming to the underlying surgical equipment upon being deployed. As such, portions of the drapes are commonly baggy, thus, can get in the way of the transfer of surgical instruments between the anterior and posterior sides of the radiological shield during surgery.